Fijian national soccer team

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Fiji
Matanitu ko Viti
Fiji Football Association logo
Association Fiji Football Association
confederacy OFC
Head coach DenmarkDenmark Flemming Serritslev (since 2020)
Record scorer Esala Masi (33)
Record player Esala Masi (52)
Home stadium TFL National Stadium
FIFA code FIJ
FIFA rank 163. (996 points)
(as of July 16, 2020)
First jersey
Second jersey
statistics
First international Fiji 4-6 New Zealand ( Suva , Fiji ; October 7, 1951 )
FijiFiji New ZealandNew Zealand
Biggest win Fiji 24-0 Kiribati ( Suva , Fiji ; August 24, 1979 )
FijiFiji KiribatiKiribati
Biggest defeat New Zealand 13-0 Fiji ( Auckland , New Zealand ; 16 Aug 1981 )
New ZealandNew Zealand FijiFiji
Successes in tournaments
Oceania Championship
Participation in the finals 8 ( first : 1973 )
Best results Third place ( 1998 , 2008 )
(As of March 28, 2017)

The Fijian national football team is the selection team of the Fiji Football Association , the football association of the Pacific island nation of Fiji . The association is a member of the world football association FIFA and the regional association OFC . Thus, you take part in the qualifying games for the soccer world championships as well as the OFC Nations Cup . The OFC Nations Cup has taken part eight times so far. The biggest success of the national team was the third place at the OFC Nations Cup in 1998

So far, the team has not yet managed to qualify for the soccer World Cup .

Fiji at the World Cup

Fiji's first qualification for a FIFA world tournament was the 1982 World Cup tournament in Spain . In the Asia / Oceania zone, the team played in home and away matches against Australia (1: 4, 0:10), Chinese Taipei (2: 1, 0: 0), Indonesia (0: 0, 3: 3) and New Zealand (0: 4, 0:13). In the end, they finished fourth in the table with one win and three draws in eight games. However, this performance meant the premature end to qualification.

Fiji's qualification for the 1990 World Cup also ended in the first round. After the team had not entered the 1986 tournament, they now had to play against Australia in two knockout games. Surprisingly, Fiji won the first leg 1-0 at home on December 11, 1988, but the second leg four days later was clearly lost 5-1 and Fiji were eliminated.

Fiji's dream of participating in the 1994 World Cup also ended in the first round. Here the team played against New Zealand (0: 3, 0: 0) and Vanuatu (3: 0, 3: 0), finished second in the table and only missed the relegation games against Australia by two points.

Qualification for the 1998 World Cup also ended for Fiji with the elimination in the first round. Against New Zealand the team lost 0: 1 and 0: 5, against Papua New Guinea they won both games (3: 1, 1: 0). The second place in the table was not enough this time for advancement.

Fiji was also unable to qualify for the 2002 World Cup. In group 1, the island nation had to play against American Samoa (13: 0), Australia (0: 2), Samoa (6: 1) and Tonga (8: 1). Ultimately, it was enough for a second place in the table behind Australia, which eliminated Fiji.

The qualification for the 2006 World Cup in Germany was more successful than the previous world tournaments. In the first round, Fiji played against American Samoa (11-0), Papua New Guinea (4-2), Samoa (4-0) and Vanuatu (0-3) and moved into the second round as runner-up. There the team had to play against Australia (1: 6), New Zealand (0: 2), the Solomon Islands (1: 2), Tahiti (0: 0) and Vanuatu (1: 0). The fourth place in the table meant in the end, however, again the elimination in the qualification.

In the first round of qualifying for the 2010 Soccer World Cup , which is also the tournament of the South Pacific Games, Fiji won the group against the Cook Islands (4: 0), New Caledonia (1: 1), Tahiti (4: 0) and Tuvalu (16 : 0), as well as a semi-final win against Vanuatu (3: 0) with the final move into the second round of the Oceania qualification at the same time (In the final you had to admit defeat New Caledonia 0: 1). The second round, which began on October 17, 2007 and is also the OFC Nations Cup , began for Fiji with a defeat against New Zealand (0: 2). The team could not win the two games against New Caledonia either, the first leg ended 3: 3, the second leg 0: 4 from a Fijian perspective. Fiji faced Vanuatu on September 6, the second leg took place on September 10. The last game against New Zealand was on November 19.

Participation in soccer world championships

Participation in the OFC Nations Cup

  • 1973 - Fifth place
  • 1980 - fourth place
  • 1996 - Not qualified
  • 1998 - third place
  • 2000 - excluded
  • 2002 - preliminary round
  • 2004 - fourth place
  • 2008 - third place
  • 2012 - preliminary round
  • 2016 - preliminary round

Participation in the South Pacific and Pacific Games

Fiji is the third most successful team in this competition with two titles and came second most often (4 ×).

Participation in the Melanesia Cup

Fiji has participated in all previous events and is the record champion with five titles.

Known players

Trainer

Individual evidence

  1. The FIFA / Coca-Cola World Ranking. In: fifa.com. July 16, 2020, accessed July 21, 2020 .
  2. Ola Bjerkevoll: Flemming Serritslev announced as new Fiji coach. In: Football in Oceania. January 22, 2020, accessed on January 23, 2020 .

See also

Web links